Synopses & Reviews
"The story of my life starts with the story of my country..."
Thus begins Julia Alvarez's epic fictional account of the real-life Salomé Ureña the "Emily Dickinson of the Dominican Republic." Born in the 1850s, in a time of intense political repression and turmoil, Salomé's fervent patriotic poems turned her at seventeen into a national icon. In the Name of Salomé is equally the story of Salomé's daughter, Camila, who grows up in exile, in the shadow of her mother's legend. Shy and self-effacing, Camila's life is in stark contrast to Salomé's. While her mother dedicated her brief life to educating Dominican girls to serve their struggling new nation, Camila spent her career explaining the Spanish pluperfect to upper-class American girls. But when, at age sixty-six, Camila makes a decision to leave her comfortable life behind and join Castro's revolution in Cuba, she begins a journey to make peace with her past and bring the lives of two remarkable women full circle.
Spanning more than a century, In the Name of Salomé proves Alvarez equally adept at capturing the sweep of history and the most intimate details of women's lives and hearts. It is Alvarez's richest and most inspiring novel to date.
Review
"A delicate writer whose respect for the force of human love gives the novel its exquisite tension." The Los Angeles Times
Review
"Original and illuminating...Alvarez's most ambitious work to date." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Dazzling....Alvarez joins the ranks of Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review
"Masterful...rich and rewarding historical fiction...poignant, colorful, exhilarating." The Denver Post
Synopsis
When 66-year-old Camila decides to leave her comfortable life behind and join Castro's revolution in Cuba, she begins to make peace with her past and can at last relate to her mother, Salom Urea, the "Emily Dickinson of the Dominican Republic". Now in paperback comes this bestselling work of historical fiction by the acclaimed author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies.
About the Author
Julia Alavarez is the author of the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies (a national Book Critics Circle Award finalist), and Yo!. She has also published two poetry collections, Homecoming and The Other side/El Otro Lado, and a collection of essays, Something to Declare.